Let’s take a look at the history of each of the four categories and which former designations are included in each:

• Performers (1986-present): This is the most straightforward of the categories and has gone unchanged since the Rock Hall’s inception. The description of the category at the museum states: “These inductees are the artists who have changed the world of rock with their mastery and artistic vision.” Notably, this is the only category in which inductees are chosen by the Voting Committee. Inductees in the other categories are selected by subsets of the Nominating Committee.

• Ahmet Ertegun Award (2008-present): After Rock Hall co-founder Ahmet Ertegun died in 2006, the Non-Performer award was renamed in his honor. In previous years, there were two separate awards, one for Lifetime Achievement and one for Non-Performers, as evident in 1991, when Nesuhi Ertegun was given the Lifetime Achievement award and Dave Bartholomew and Ralph Bass were inducted as Non-Performers. The induction program noted the difference (see the photos below), and up until a few years ago, RockHall.com also made the distinction (they now blend the two categories into the Ahmet Ertegun award). To further confuse things, Jann Wenner was inducted in 2004 with the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Nonperformer Category.

  

  

  

• Early Influence (1986-present): In the first induction class, this category was called “Forefathers and Early Influences.” Between 1987 and 1991, it was sometimes shortened to just “Forefathers,” even inducting Ma Rainey in that category in 1990. Since 1992, the category has been called “Early Influences,” but is only used sporadically.

  

  

  While the name of the Early Influences category eventually settled down, the definition slowly became more flexible. On RockHall.com, the category is still defined as “Honoring the artists that pre-date the birth of rock & roll, but have had a profound impact on music’s evolution and its iconic artists.” The only proscriptive criteria is that artists should pre-date rock & roll, generally considered to have begun in the early 1950s. That hasn’t stopped the Hall from inducting artists such as Wanda Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Freddie King, all of whom were first nominated in the Performer category before being inducted as Early Influences, despite the bulk of their careers occurring during the rock & roll era. Rock Hall Foundation President Joel Peresman recently suggested that the definition of the category be further expanded to potentially include influential genre-pioneers like Kraftwerk, who didn’t form until 1970.

• Award for Musical Excellence (2011-present): The Sideman category (2000-2009) was retired after the 2009 ceremony, and all 15 inductees have been folded into the Award for Musical Excellence category, which is an honor that is now used as a catch-all for “performers, songwriters and producers.” Never mind that performers have their own category and producers and songwriters have traditionally been inducted into the Non-Performers category. The Rock Hall has used this category as a way to induct artists like Leon Russell, the E Street Band, Ringo Starr, and Nile Rodgers, without having to go through the formality of putting them on the ballot that is sent to the voters.

  This award was originally called the "Award for Recording Excellence" in 2011, but was changed to the current name in 2012.

  

• Singles (2018-2019?): This well-meaning category was initially created as a way to honor artists who had historically significant songs but generally would have been unable to get inducted as Performers under the current system. But in 2019, the Rock Hall inducted a song by a current inductee thereby throwing out its only rule for the category and making it meaningless. The Rock Hall Museum never embraced the Singles inductees with an exhibit and has now scrubbed any mention of them from their website. (January 2020 Update: The Singles have been added to the Rock Hall's website.) HBO didn’t broadcast the Singles segment of the Induction Ceremony in 2019, so this category may be toast.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s casual attitude towards its own history continues to be troubling. For an institution that has a robust Library & Archives, they are all too willing to change their own history, either by quietly inducting people after the induction ceremony or by omitting the names of inducted artists from their website and Hall of Fame wall that go unfixed for years. With their most recent website redesign, they removed valuable content that they had built over the years in favor of highlighting their online store and paid memberships. Hopefully some of the Museum’s talented curators can turn their attention to preserving the history of their own institution and live up to their “commitment to forever.”

In 1999, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the “Early Influence” category. For years, the Rock Hall clearly listed all of the Playboys individually on their website as inductees, as this screenshot from 2010 shows:

When the new Hall of Fame exhibit at the Museum was unveiled last year, the Texas Playboys were omitted from the signature plaque and removed from the website:

Why on earth* would the Rock Hall remove Tommy Duncan, Leon McAuliffe, Johnny Gimble, Joe Holley, Tiny More, Herb Remington, Eldon Shamblin, and Al Stricken? We all know the Rock Hall has a problem inducting women, but throwing out dead male inductees doesn’t seem like a good solution. If you’re going to erase history, at least provide an explanation for what you’re doing.

* - Please don’t say it’s because they didn’t fit on the plaque.

Update (May 4, 2019): The Rock Hall Museum’s President and CEO, Greg Harris, tweeted today to say that the Texas Playboys have been restored to the website and will be added to the signature wall soon.

All, thank you for bringing the Bob Wills item to our attention, we’ve checked our records and updated the website to reflect the way we’ve had it since 1999 including the Texas Playboys. Plaque will be updated shortly again thanks.

— Greg Harris (@rockhallceo) May 4, 2019

Update (January 22, 2020):

Happy to report that the Texas Playboys are once again displayed in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Thanks to @KatBoydRocks for the photo pic.twitter.com/5JsAsPOpb5

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) January 19, 2020

As for the new president, one of the first public changes to the Rock Hall on his watch is an elimination of the photography ban within the museum. Fans obviously hated the old policy, and the museum staff probably hated enforcing it. Photos from inside the museum are now starting to show up on various social media sites.

**The Chili Peppers were also nominated two years ago (prior to Burnstein’s involvement with the Rock Hall) and are clearly strong Hall of Fame candidates, and it’s unknown if Burnstein was directly involved in getting the band on the ballot this year.

This is not a new problem for the Rock Hall Foundation, and they likely don’t see it as an issue. They have been facing accusations of bias since the Rock Hall’s birth and have never taken any steps to remove that perception.

If the Rock Hall wants to get serious about improving its perception with the public, we have some suggestions to improve the induction process:

1. Term limits for Nominating Committee members (5-7 years). The prospect of new voices on the Committee would give hope for neglected artists.
2. Allow the Nominating Committee members to speak about the process publicly.
3. Publish rules for the nominating process and include something to address conflicts of interest.
4. Make the list of Voting Committee members public.
5. Hire an independent accounting firm to handle the vote counting like every other reputable awards show does.
6. Publish complete voting statistics. We understand you don’t want to hurt artists’ feelings, but they will survive. It should be an honor just to be in the discussion for the Hall of Fame.
7. Find a way to engage the fans. There are lots of ways to do this, but a simple way would be to create a fan vote for the last ballot position from four choices you provide. We don’t want the Rock Hall to turn into the Hard Rock Café anymore than you do.
8. Stop being so secretive. You should have publicized the fact that Cliff Burnstein is now on the Nominating Committee. Be proud of who you are and what you are creating.

Th BME's website states they will be "dedicated to the history of popular music in Britain," and it appears that non-British artists will be left out, so it's not exactly duplicating what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame does.

Harvey Goldsmith, the chairman of the museum had this to say:

"When I first started this I saw the Rock and Roll hall of fame in America to reflect genres and we really needed something like this in the UK, a home for all of the history of UK talent and artists that make their name in the UK.

"We have such a wealth of talent from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to the Rolling Stones to The Who, its just endless how many great acts we've produced. It's important for us to reflect, look back and entertain something about music has developed."

The Grammy Museum, opening in downtown L.A., "explores and celebrates the enduring legacies of all forms of music; the creative process; the art and technology of the recording process; and the history of the GRAMMY® Awards, the premier recognition of recorded music accomplishment." Variety has much more on the grand opening.

The new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex, opening in New York, has received generally positive reviews from the press. Here's how the Washington Post sums it up:

[T]he annex isn't attempting to duplicate the Cleveland experience. In its 25,000 square feet, it highlights significant moments in music. It serves as the CliffsNotes to music history. (If you want the whole book, go to Cleveland.) And it does so with enthusiasm, good humor and little pretense.

Forbes Magazine thinks so. They recently named the Cleveland landmark the #2 ugliest building in the world. Oddly enough, the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is theoretically slated to open in the #1 ugliest building in the world, the Millennium Dome in London.

Are rock and roll museums and good architecture mutually exclusive? No, we think Forbes is just looking for some easy publicity by putting together a controversial list. We're surprised they didn't go for the trifecta and add Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project to the list too.

What was it that killed this awards show? Was it the induction of Robbie Williams over Radiohead in 2004 that laid an unstable foundation? Or was the final nail in the coffin the induction of Bon Jovi in 2006, the last ceremony ever? We'll probably never know for sure.

There has been no news on the progress of the (unrelated) UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since it was announced in January. Anyone know if it died too?

Thanks, Tom.

Two years ago, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny used the Rock Hall prominently. Last year 30 Rock also had the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in its "Cleveland" episode.

Is the Rock Hall now iconic enough to find it's way into more mainstream Hollywood fare? Are there any other movies where the Rock Hall makes an appearance? Let us know in the comments.

In the same year that Cleveland will finally wrestled the Induction Ceremony back from New York, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced it is opening a new $12 million museum annex in SoHo.

“Establishing outposts like these is becoming a strategy of other major institutions,” said Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Terry Stewart, citing the Guggenheim Museum of New York, Britain’s Tate Modern and the Louvre in Paris as examples. “These projects allow museums to extend their reach, but also provide space to travel exhibits and allow curators to display some of our priceless artifacts for the first time outside of Cleveland.”

You can check out the website for the Annex and apply for a job at RockAnnex.com.

While bringing the Induction Ceremony back to Cleveland will undoubtedly help raise the profile of the Museum, it won't cure the image problem that the Rock Hall has in the eyes of many people. This website alone contains thousands of pleas to the Hall to induct long ignored fan favorites such as KISS, Rush, Alice Cooper, The Moody Blues, The Monkees, Neil Diamond, Yes, Steve Miller Band, Jethro Tull, and many others. You can't help but wonder if Terry Stewart wishes the New York-based Rock Hall Foundation (who determines the nominees each year) would put some popular names on the ballot to help boost ticket sales at the museum. What's going to bring more people to Cleveland, Janis Joplin's car or a KISS induction with a full blown exhibit to honor them? A Leonard Cohen exhibit or a Monkees induction?

We're not advocating the induction of artists purely to sell Museum tickets, but you have to wonder if every year Terry Stewart shows up at the Nominating Committee meeting hoping that another stadium act like U2 or Aerosmith will get the votes to appear on the ballot (maybe Bon Jovi for 2009?).

Dubbed “Popworld”, the new exhibition will combine state-of-the-art technology and rare memorabilia from the likes of David Bowie and Arctic Monkeys to trace the evolution of popular music from the end of the second world war to the present day.

Visitors will be able to download classic tracks such as John Lennon’s Imagine on to their iPods or mobile phones as they tour the site and even record their own songs in a mini-studio.

The attraction could also include the country’s first permanent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, to which new artists will be inducted each year.

Instead of having their names or handprints etched into the wall or floor, as with the Hollywood Walk of Fame, legends such as the Who and Led Zeppelin may be brought to life at the touch of a button through the use of holograms.

It is unclear whether the UK Rock Hall intends to honor British artists exclusively or if it will be similar to the US version, which is multi-national. It also doesn't seem to be affiliated with the UK Music Hall of Fame (although that wouldn't be such a bad idea), which actually may already be defunct after a short three year run of inductions that ended in 2006.

The Museum exhibit "will feature memorabilia from No Doubt, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, NOFX, New Found Glory, My Chemical Romance, Joan Jett, Dropkick Murphys, Bouncing Souls, Rancid, Helmet, Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail, All-American Rejects and others."

After the exhibit closes in September, the Museum will be put the items "into a 'time capsule' to be stored at the Museum for 25 years, opened at a special event in 2031 and again displayed for an additional six months."

While the Museum is waiting around for 2031, Future Rock Hall should be able to give you a good idea of whether or not the above bands will be relevant 25 years from now.

I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be nice, but you know, that's a boys club too. And the people that run it, they've got their own little agenda. So the truth of the matter is the greatest compliment that I've had is the idea that twenty years and a hundred million albums later -- that's much cooler than anything else.